Magical Girl City: Empire of Ice

The moment the book was cracked open. I was elsewhere. The feeling exactly like when I had opened up that book on necromancy so long ago. Only, this time, it felt… so much more.

The air was thick with tension. The sound of chalk on a board filled the hall. Around me, shadowed figures sat, looking forward as a familiar face worked at the forefront of it all.

He was an aged man. Horned glasses, a slight limp. His cane set on his desk as he worked. Even with chalk in hand, his writing was without fault. Elegant, smooth.

The moment the last character was written, he turned, adjusted his glasses, and faced us all. His voice echoed over the space. Eyes and ears tuned in. Drinking in the knowledge. The characters, the diagrams behind him seemed to pulse and glow with meaning as he spoke.

Day in.

Day out.

Theory became practice. We began the long process of processing materials over an indeterminable period of time. Working with different metals and chemicals. Learning to dilute, or even concentrate magic, to make it into a physical form.

That, and we quickly moved onto how different materials interacted with magic. How organic material such as wood and flesh handled magical energy, how it mutated and changed. The structure of metals and alloys, and how different ingredients interacted with one another.

How mundane chemicals could be enhanced or changed with careful applications of magics.

Most of what we touched upon really just scratched the surface of what was an incredibly vast field. Something that would take decades, if not more just to handle a single aspect.

In some ways, I felt like I was back to basic Chemistry. Mixing chemicals to create reactions, like sticking Mentos into Coke. However, it was so much more. Yet, the more I learned, the less I knew. Even trying to grasp it all made my brain hurt, like it was about to burst. Yet, despite that, it kept pouring in, etching itself into my being.

Worse, it felt raw. I hadn’t been warned about using this grimoire, but I could feel it digging into my still healing soul, and perhaps because of that, I wasn’t getting the full effects. Or maybe, it was just because I wasn’t suited to it…

Eventually though, it came to an end, and the world came back into focus. My eyes bleary, dry. I blinked rapidly. My eyelids felt like sandpaper against my dry eyes. It took a bit to feel moderately normal. My lips were dry. My head pounded and ached. There was also an uncomfortable crick in the back of my neck that just wouldn’t go away.

All of that, was completely ignored as the knowledge came to the forefront. Diagrams, arrays, countless chemical compositions, how magic influenced different processes.

In the grand scheme of things, it felt like barely the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg that spanned continents.

And… it was only the start. This singular book was a full four-year course into alchemy. A comparable example, would be bachelor’s degree in chemistry or perhaps Natural Science. Enough to work at a pharmacy, or even as a lab assistant. Not enough to pass a doctorate, or anything fancy.

Yet, when all that knowledge was crammed in, at the ready. Combined with the years of necromancy jammed in. The knowledge combined, meshed in a way I couldn’t quite begin parsing out. Not to mention, much of it was blurry, raw. Like smudged ink on a page. Obscuring the information inside.

What I did understand changed how I saw the world. My mind burned. Seethed, churned. Like the sea during a storm. My fingers itched, twitched. Time very nearly forgotten as I checked my watch.

A few hours. That was all I had. I hadn’t slept a wink. But I had never felt so energized in my whole life. So, I went to work. A pen was procured, paper next. My hands moved, words came into being faster than I could see.

Endless possibilities demanded everything from me, and I could write so much. I could only get so much in the little time I had.

Calls were made, preparations were done. Not all of them could be done in the moment. And with regret, I weas forced to divorce myself from my project to get to work. Back to my job.

I didn’t bother working in the archive this time, to continue working towards the next project. I was too distracted to talk or speak with anyone. Formulae, and ideas on the tip of my tongue. Bleeding into my work, forcing me to undo and redo hours of work, hurting my progress. Earning a few worried looks in the process as I muttered to myself in an almost alien language.

The moment work ended, I hitched a ride to the bar and retrieved my car. At which point, I started. Gold was exchanged. My personal teller was more than happy to make the exchange. My share of gold was worth quite a bit, and just as quickly, those funds washed away, like sand on the shore.

Purchases were made. Projects ordered. Calls were made. In short order, I was back where I started, or so it seemed. Goods were piled into the warehouse after multiple shopping trips. New material, some new, some not filled the warehouse.

Yet, while I worked the others were not idle. Talia began her own reading of the grimoire I had read. Shi was actively digesting the pill I had given her by training and exhausting herself.

Before I fell asleep, I made a call to Lance and told him what I wanted him to make me from my own portion of magical metals. What I asked for, he was more than happy to fulfill. Other orders were a bit different. The sole purpose being to streamline my future processes.

The moment it was all done, I collapsed into sleep. With morning came the calm. The calm before a storm. I settled myself. Realizing, knowing, that I’d done everything I could for the time being. Now, came the time to set my sights elsewhere.

I went to work as usual. My gaze razor sharp. I finished my tasks and made up for all my mistakes the day prior. At the end, I focused on my job in the archive with renewed zealotry. Like I was possessed, I took to my work with newfound focus. Barely even noticing the arrival of my surviving soldiers and knights back at the warehouse when I went back to continue planning out everything.

By the weeks end, the first set of goods arrived. Which was enough to break even Talia out of her stupor. The office was filled with papers. Diagrams, arrays, and countless different possibilities that the piece of bone I had given her could become, combined with her own notations of the book on Alchemy.

She slept little, ate little. In a lot of ways, she’d more or less been sucked into the task, not unlike how I was with my own task. Shi was no different. Being in a constant stupor, working on breaking down the blood pills, making their power, hers.

The arrival of trucks, of men moving things about dragged Talia from her makeshift workshop. Seeing the metal containers wheeled in and hooked into the buildings power and water supply took her through a loop. Along with a large vat, and plastic drum barrels filled with liquid being placed about.

In a matter of moments, the main floor was filled. Talia, with red, tired eyes looked over everything like an owl. Eyes wide, mouth agape.

“What is all this?” She finally asked as the final item was settled in, and the workers left.

“Preparations.” I answered simply, “These are large-scale freezers for making ice blocks.” I point to a set of large rectangular blocks of hard metal. “They pressurize and sift away the impurities in the water and make blocks at a decent pace. It’s also hooked directly into the buildings water supply, so we won’t have to mess with the hose to fill them constantly.”

What was went unsaid, was that the water bill, and electric bill would definitely be going through the roof. Luckily, Diana had come in with the first wave of profits from the items she was fencing off for the group. With the following waves continuing through the month.

It wasn’t that the women’s home was dragging their feet, though, they might have been. The truth was that the sheer volume of items created a bit of an issue. Mass selling them would significantly reduce our profits. Whereas a slow, steady drop yielded the best gains for the time spent.

The short tour continued as I pointed to other additions. Including special wires forged with precious metals, such as silver and gold, courtesy of Lance. For use in making more efficient arrays. Along with plates and insulators to place them on to prevent bleeding through when a significant amount of magic was coursing through them.

A larger container was left, empty and set aside. Like a large boiler, with thick glass showing the inside of it. Already, I was vibrating as I considered the possibilities while Talia was entirely aware of just why I was excited. It wasn’t until I pointed to the large vat that she sensed something was up.

“What are you going to put in here?” She asked, curios, eyeing the barrels of chemicals.

“The bone golem core.” I answered easily enough.

“What, why?” She asked, bewildered. “Isn’t it just a silver rank core?”

“That was what I thought too, but… is that really the case? The core seems to charge itself. Not just that, but it has its own independent source of magic that lets it keep going with perpetuity, even without the connection to the control rod.” I say, and all too quickly, she catches on.

“You think it might be a gold ranked material?”

“Yes. It might even be a power core, or some variation of magic core. I won’t know until I get rid of all the enchantments and additions on it.”

“Is that what the chemicals are for? Can they even do it?”

“If the material is gold ranked, like I think, easily. The actual formations aren’t very strong. As are the materials coating the core to help facilitate the exchange in energy. The issue, normally, is devising a means to separate it from the core safely. Which is what these chemicals should do.” I state.

Talia doesn’t question me. If anything, she too eagerly begins to join in and assist me in filling the vat with the chemicals I bought. We wore simple masks to protect our eyes and lungs from the fumes as we worked together to dump the contents inside. The bubbling concoction enough to melt flesh on contact.

Even then, Talia worked with anticipation and a desire to see if it would work.

“The chemicals aren’t strong enough to remove the outer layer though.” She says as we work.

“Which is why I’m adding these.” I procure a few coins, casually tossing them into the concoction. “It’ll wreck the vat, but it’s not like we’ll need it again. Diffusing the coins into the chemicals will elevate their effectiveness to even effect magical items, like, say, the arrays. All without damaging the core. In theory.”

“That is assuming the core is gold ranked… if it was bronze ranked, well, it would melt with the array.”

“It would.” I answer back.

“And if it’s silver ranked, well, the chemicals are likely to do severe damage to it.”

“Yup.”

“But for a potential gold rank core, it’s totally worth the gamble.” Talia said, eyes glinting with greed.

“Exactly my thoughts. The chemicals were rather expensive, and the vat was too, but I have a good feeling about this.” I say, and Talia agrees.

Once enough coins are in, it’s clear the empowered chemicals are slowly working away at the metal inside the vat. Left alone, they’d eat right through the metal. Luckily, we weren’t just leaving it like this.

Carefully, we worked together to put the bone golem core inside. And the simmering concoction froths and hisses. We stare at it for a good moment before sealing it up. At which point…

“What now?” She asks.

“We wait… probably? Might need to stir the thing every once in a while, to keep things going.”

“I can keep an eye on that.” Talia offers.

“You sure? Aren’t you busy with your own project?”

“A little, yeah…” She says, a slight blush on her face. “The thing is, I’ve got a lot of ideas, and I’ve got a few ideas on what I could do. I just need to refine the ideas a bit, and when I do that, well, I’ll need your help.”

“My help?” I ask.

“Yeah, you’re my boss and all, and I want to know what you think would work best.”

“You sure?”

She nods. “Absolutely. If we’re going to keep working together, I want to get something that synergizes with you.”

Nodded along. “We’ll do that then.” I say, and both of us look at the vat. Eventually we split back up. With her focus on her task while I begin focusing on my own tasks.

With it being the weekend, I didn’t have much planned. I’d forgone my usual meeting with Éclair to focus on myself. And I chose not to participate in any patrols this week as well. Choosing to use this time to help solidify myself.

Next week will be different, but this weekend, I planned to wholly focus on my craft. On planning out what it was I was going to be doing in the future.

With that in mind, I quickly made a block of ice using my old method. A process made all too easy with my improved control and strength. Enough, that it almost seemed moot for me to have bought those ice makers.

With a block of ice before me, I began to think, consider. Knowing full well, this block wasn’t going to be a proper project. Rather, from here on out. I was going to focus on one thing, and one thing alone.

Refining my craft.